17 Years

What have I learned?

Well, for one, I've learned how fast 17 years goes by. It seems just yesterday I was sitting on my dad's shoulders as he walked across Brookfield Zoo with me. Crazy how timeschange so quickly, and as I get older, I'm beginning to realize how life can be a blur, with days, weeks going by from one to the next until you wake up one day and wonder where it all went. It seems like others my age are all about having fun while it lasts, but as I get older I've come to realize that no mater what life throws at me, no matter how quickly it passes, nothing will ever come close to surpassing the love my Creator has for me. Life goes by quickly, but our time here isn't for nothing. In the words of Chaim Potok:

"Human beings do not live forever. We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity. So it may be asked what value is there to a human life. There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye? . . .I learned a long time ago, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing. But the eye that blinks, that is something. A span of life is nothing. But the man who lives the span, he is something. He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant. A man must fill his life with meaning."

And that meaning for me is to live for Christ. To give everything for his cause. I am compelled to speak, to breathe, and to show the love he has shown me. Because of this I feel a calling from him to devote my life to ministry, and over the next few years, I hope to be attending a bible seminary (possilby Moody Bible Institute in Chicago) in order to help me with the skills and knowledge to help me serve him in the best way possible. I trust him to continue to lead and guide me through this journey. 17 seems like a long time when I look back, but many times it appears to be only the beginning.